Fitz-Roy flew into a passion, berating the volunteer 

 naturalist, and suggested a taste of the rope's end in 

 lieu of logic. 



Darwin made no reply, and seemingly did not hear the 

 uncalled-for chidings. 



In a few^ hours a sailor handed him a note from Cap- 

 tain Fitz-Roy full of abject apology for having so for- 

 gotten himself. Darwin was then but tw^enty-two years 

 old, but the poise and patience of the young man w^on 

 the respect, then the admiration and finally the affec- 

 tion of every man on board that ship. This attitude of 

 kindness, patience and good will formed the strongest 

 attribute of Darwin's nature, and to these godlike 

 qualities he ^vas heir from a royal line of ancestry. No 

 man "was ever more blest — more richly endo^ved by 

 his parents w^ith love and intellect — than Darwin. And 

 no man ever repaid the debt of love more fully — all 

 that he had received he gave again. 

 Dar'win is the Saint of Science. 



He proves the possible ; and "when mankind shall have 

 evolved to a point where such men will be the rule, 

 not the exception — as one in a million — then and not 

 till then can w^e say we are a civilized people. 

 Charles Darwin was not only the greatest thinker of 

 his time (with possibly one exception), but in his 

 simplicity and earnestness, in his limpid love for truth 

 — his perfect w^illingness to abandon his opinion if he 

 were found to be w^rong — in all these things he proved 

 himself the greatest man of his time. 

 Yet it is absurd to try to separate the scientist from 



159 



LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



